


in sickness, in health, and everything in between

by JaeRianL



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff & Angst, Leo Fitz Feels, Leo Fitz-centric, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26563951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaeRianL/pseuds/JaeRianL
Summary: If there are two things in life that don’t go well together, it’s one Dr. Leo Fitz, and being sick.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	in sickness, in health, and everything in between

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!
> 
> Just before you start reading, a quick warning for an offhand mention to vomiting, as well as depiction of illness (flu) and severe headaches/migraines in this fic!

If there are two things in life that don’t go well together, it’s one Dr. Leo Fitz, and being sick. Of course he gets sick, he’s a regular human being after all, but it’s a matter of him working himself to the bone whilst ill, allowing himself no reprieve or rest even when close to vomiting. He is fully cognisant of the fact that it isn’t a healthy coping mechanism, however it’s one he’s carried with him since childhood, and it’s a hard mindset to shake.

Not, mind you, that any of his team, or his partners for that matter, know about this self-destructive tendency of his. When the flu runs rampant among the agents based at the Playground, taking down lab technicians, field agents, and analysts alike, he has no time to worry about getting ill, not when all three of his partners end up out of commission with it. 

The first to show any signs of it is Jemma, who had caught it whilst taking care of Daisy in one of the containment pods, trying to make sure her powers didn’t go haywire. Probably the most obvious of the three, Jemma was worst affected, spending her days curled up in bed, miserable as sin, leeching heat from whichever one of her partners cuddled up with her. Since Fitz has known her the longest, had seen her through a multitude of different illnesses, he had a protocol set up for her already, one which he took most of the responsibility for over the time she was ill - in between missions and lab work of course.

Next came Bobbi, the specialist having been forced to go out on more missions, leaving her worn out and more susceptible to Jemma’s germs. If Jemma was a leech for warmth, then Bobbi was constantly searching for cold, often found crouched in front of the fan they had for when the AC went out. Caring for Bobbi when ill was an awful lot more difficult, due to the fact that she had a habit of going walk-about in the Playground, sending Fitz and Hunter on a wild goose chase looking for her. In the end, Fitz and Hunter has managed to contain her within their room through the sheer coincidence that Jemma is like a walking icicle, and Bobbi a sauna, meaning the two women spend most of their days curled up with one another, finding the balance they needed.

Then Hunter fell ill, and for a man who could brush off a bullet wound like it was nothing, he sure as hell didn’t take up the same approach when he had the flu. He was a drama queen like no other, demanding Fitz’s attention constantly to the point he couldn’t hang up their video call for more than two minutes before being inundated with messages. Thankfully by this point, Bobbi and Jemma were on the mend and could take some of the load off of Fitz as he took on the role of one biochemist, one biologist/specialist and one mercenary-turned-specialist both on base and in the field. 

But they had made it through, a little more exhausted than usual, but nothing too extreme. Then a week after his partners have fully recovered, Fitz could feel the warning signs of illness coming on, a sniffle here, a cough there, and he is dreading it. He starts making a conscious effort to leave cardigans and hoodies lying around, takes to carrying a water bottle with him wherever he goes, stashes boxes of tissues around the lab, essentially preparing to work covertly through the illness.

The first ‘official’ day of being ill doesn’t go too terribly, some sniffles here and there, some shivering despite wearing three of his thickest layers, and a headache that makes itself known. When his partners ask if he’s okay, he waves off their concern, saying that he wasn’t made for underground winters before hastily changing the subject. The next day goes by in a similar manner, he forces himself to eat and stay hydrated, and although he’s noticed his partners talking quietly amongst themselves, he hasn’t brought it up with them, denial always works in his books.

But then day three hits him like a tonne of bricks, like it always does, and this must be his own personal hell. Waking up, everything is just too much. The bed sheets are itchy, he’s too warm, the bedroom light is too bright and he feels congested and dizzy and he’s already had enough of the day. Peeling himself out of the cuddle pile they’d ended up in overnight, Fitz throws on the most comfortable and least stimulating clothing he owns, ending up in a sweatshirt he’s ‘borrowed’ from Hunter and a pair of jeans that have been with him since he was at the Academy, as well as a pair of converse that he knows Jemma would throw out if she realised he still owned them. 

Forcing himself to face the day, rather than hide away in their room, he puts on the sensory overload glasses he’d fashioned years before, as well as putting in a pair of earphones, trying to block out the outside world so that he can get on with the seemingly never ending paperwork and gadget repairs. When Jemma comes into the lab a few hours later, Fitz doesn’t dare to look up at his girlfriend, lest she see him look like the zombie he feels. His headache seems to start combat with the ferocious cough threatening to not only tear his throat to shreds, but also give the game away to Jemma.

Eventually, it all comes to a head when Bobbi and Hunter come into the lab around one, insisting that the four of them go to lunch before they get called out to a mission. At first, Fitz doesn’t hear the request, at least until Bobbi comes over to him and pulls an earphone out of his ear, talking to him at her normal volume, and it takes every fibre of his being not to flinch away and hide in a dark room. Knowing that it’d rouse more suspicion if he didn’t agree to lunch, despite the nausea and distinct lack of hunger he feels, Fitz forces himself up out of his chair, turning to face his partners only for his world to go black.

When he wakes up, Fitz finds himself on their bed, being stared at by three very concerned looking SHIELD agents, all of whom look at him like he’s a puzzle waiting to be solved. Pushing himself upright, Fitz winces as he comes face to face with the brightness that is their bedroom. Squinting his eyes, and throwing a hand over his face, he listens as Hunter curses under his breath before jogging over to the light switch, turning on a lamp in the far corner of the room instead.

Fitz goes to relax into the bed, take the chance to sleep, when he realises that it’s still daytime, and he most certainly should still be working. Moving as quickly as he can, despite feeling as though he is wading through tar, Fitz tries to leave the bed to get back to the lab, much to the concern of his partners. Gently, Bobbi explains how Coulson had given him time off, seeing as Jemma had told their boss how Fitz had gone down with the flu, and that he needn’t get out of bed. Whilst this was supposed to calm him down, it seems only to rile him up more, making him more determined to get back to work despite his miserable state. It takes all three of his partners curling into him to stop his escape efforts, and even then he’s still vibrating with the need to go back to the lab. 

“Leo, love, you need to rest.” Hunter insists, running his hand through Fitz’s sweaty curls to try and calm his boyfriend down. “You’ve done so much for us, took care of all of us when we were ill, now we need to do the same for you.”

“But ‘m not ’llowed.” He says, pouting as he feels his resolve slipping.

“Says who Fitz?” Jemma asks softly, having a feeling she already knows the answer to her question.

“Da. Says I cannae waste anymore time bein’ useless, so gotta suck i’ up.” He mutters drowsily, drifting off to sleep at the repetitive motion of Hunter’s hand in his curls, and Bobbi tracing circles on his hip.

Over Fitz’s head, the three share a look, another reason to add to the ‘pros to taking out Alistair Fitz once and for all’ list that they’d created since their relationship had started. The man is lucky that his son is kind enough not to unleash the wrath of all three of his partners, not to mention his team, onto him, because the moment anyone gets permission, the whole of SHIELD will undoubtedly come down on him. Deciding to shelve that conversation away for another day, the trio reassure him that he’s not a bother, healthy or ill, and that they’ll take care of him for now. Thankfully, that seems to be enough to convince the barely lucid man to succumb to the much needed slumber, much to their collective relief.

Fitz is woken from his slumber hours later, and is much more disoriented than he cares to admit. He finds himself clinging onto Bobbi as if his girlfriend were a giant teddy bear, and winces as he pulls away from her, feeling horribly stiff and exhausted to the bone despite the brief rest - although, to be fair, he can’t remember the last time he didn’t feel some level of exhaustion - and he is ready to sneak back into the lab to make up for lost time. However before he manages to sneak out of bed, he finds himself on the receiving end of the disappointed Simmons glare , his girlfriend frowning at him from the doorway with Hunter standing behind her, laden down with tissues, cough sweets and practically anything else you’d find in the cold and flu section of a pharmacy.

Gently, he wakes Bobbi up from her nap, kissing her on the cheek before pushing himself upright, holding his hands up defensively when Jemma goes to yell at him for trying to escape again. Despite the room being barely lit, Fitz can still feel the migraine threatening to make an appearance, and clumsily seeks out the glasses that he’s sure one of his partner’s would’ve placed on the bedside table during his nap. By the time he gets them back on, the room now almost completely dark, he finds Jemma and Hunter perched on the other end of the bed, gently reaching out to touch him. He offers Hunter his free hand, nudges Jemma with his knee, and leans into Bobbi, careful to not cough on her.

“Leo, we need to talk about this.” Bobbi says softly, passing him a pair of earphones when he flinches at her speaking. 

“Better?” Jemma asks, smiling when he nods gently. “She’s not wrong Fitz, you really scared us when you collapsed earlier, I’ve never seen you that ill, none of us have.”

“Tha’ was the point.”

“Fitz, please tell me you’ve never been this ill around me before.” Jemma pleads, and when Fitz turns his head from her, unable to look her in the eyes, she sighs heavily, once again cursing the impact that Alistair had left on Fitz,

“‘M sorry, it's jus’ hard, whenever I’ve been ill I’ve always worked ‘til I got better. I love and trust all of y’, but it’s easier for me t’ deal with i’ alone.”

His partners share a look, one which he has come to realise is their ‘how do we deal with this unresolved childhood trauma?’ look, before turning back to Fitz, loving smiles and barely restrained attempts to hug and care for him. Together the four discuss all of Fitz’s medical history, including the chronic migraines that he had hidden, before working out a system on how to deal with an ill Fitz - said man nearly falling asleep on Bobbi’s shoulder during the discussion, sue him he’s ill. When Fitz stops ‘resting his eyes’, he finds Jemma hunched over a piece of paper, scribbling down a set of rules to be stuck up on their bedroom door.

The poster, labelled The Sickness Agreement, lists all the ways in which any one of them could fall under the realm of illness, ranging from bullet wounds, to migraines, to poor mental health days, and what the protocol is should any of these events occur. While Fitz knows that they wouldn’t have needed this had he not been so stubborn about being ill, it’s nice that it’s not targeted solely at him, but rather could apply to any of them. 

Underneath the list of illnesses - which did include contracting alien viruses - it has a list of ways to deal with them, the number one way being to tell at least one of them what is going on. Of course, there are other means which are added, Fitz having cheekily suggested ‘not jumping out of an aircraft without a parachute’ during a more lucid moment, much to the abject horror of Bobbi and Hunter who stare at Jemma, praying that Fitz is half asleep or joking. At the very bottom, each of them has signed and dated the Agreement, albeit Fitz’s signature looks more like a squiggle and less like his actual name, and Jemma proudly sticks the paper to their door, making sure it’s perfectly straight and in all of their eye lines in case they try to avoid looking at it. 

Once the discussion is well and truly over, for now at least, Fitz takes it upon himself to snuggle down into his pillows, pushing down the guilt he can feel creeping in at not working, choosing to ignore the faint cooing he can hear from his partners in favour of finding the optimal position for not choking in his sleep. Eventually settling down, he can feel the bed dip around him as Hunter curls up beside him, Bobbi moving out of the way so Jemma can take her place next to Fitz, gently shushing him when he tries to tell them off for risking reinfection. The guilt won’t go away, not immediately, but having the chance to spend the days he’s ill in bed with the people he loves, that is better than any day working whilst tired, snotty and alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought & come find me on [ Tumblr](https://acetoshikosato.tumblr.com/)! Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Jae <3


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